It has been another incredibly busy year for Westbury Lions Club!
We started the year with a membership of 42, positioning us as the second largest club in our district and setting our sights on continued growth to maintain the ongoing club fundraising performance and to ease the pressure on our older members.
In February we enjoyed our now regular ‘Ladies Excuse Me Night’, where the male members of the club prepare a banquet for their ladies and entertain them with tales of derring do and soft music. This prepares them for the busy year ahead, and is regarded by our lady members as one of their highlights of the year, simply because they are not required to clean up after!
At the beginning of March we attempted a new fundraising event for the club, with our charity Bake Off event aimed at getting the community baking. All entries were judged and judged subsequently raffled the entries to raise funds for community welfare projects. The event was a success with plans already in place for another event in 2017.
Also in March we held our Easter Egg Hunt, an event we host at no charge for the children of Westbury, in the grounds of the All Saints Church. Despite the rain we gave away over 200 easter eggs as well as raffle prizes donated by local businesses.
In May we did our first town clean up activity, coinciding with the Clean for the Queen campaign. Our Leos and Lions set off around the town collecting rubbish and tidying pavements where they could, and received high praise from the community for their efforts.
We also held our club Charter night, this year celebrating 42 years of Westbury Lions with friends, family and members of other clubs from all over the district. As a social event this is one of our favourites with black tie and posh frocks the order of the night!
Moving into June and our now very well established Donkey Derby event was held. This event really brings everyone out whatever the weather, and once again we had attendance well above our own expectations. The event is great for families for so many reasons, including the donkey rides and races, local charity stalls and fairground attractions. As always the support of the White Horse Country Park ensures we have superb facilities to make our visitors comfortable, and the event continues to be a great fundraising success for us that other Lions clubs look to replicate throughout the district.
In July outgoing President Jarvis MacDonald handed over the reins to Lion Phil Harris. Phil is a well known figure in Westbury having worked as a driving instructor for many years in the town, and his experience with the Gateway Club (now Archway), good character and sense of humour is a great match for Westbury Lions.
Also in July we were invited to support the CliveyFest event in Dilton Marsh, supplying marshals and stalls in return for Lions being the main charity benefactor of the event. Our members teamed up with Frome Lions to support the event, and everyone reported having a great time meeting lots of friendly faces over the weekend. We hope that we can continue the great relationship with the CliveyFest team by supporting them again in 2017!
The summer months are always busy for the club, with us supporting numerous fetes and fairs with bottle stalls, hook a duck and book stalls to keep us ticking over, and trying to fit a club barbecue in too for the members to kick back and relax a little.
Moving into the Autumn we held our now very established 10k run, this year supported by over 120 runners and with all feedback once again being positive. Without the support of the local running clubs this event simply couldn’t happen, so it is great that so many people come along and enjoy the day with us. Next year we are still hoping to see our first club member get their running shoes on for the event, with hot favourites being Jarvis MacDonald and Phil Harris showing interest in stepping up to the starting line.
We also enjoyed supporting the Redfish 3k Run at Leighton in December, supplying our Christmas Float and Santa to entertain the runners which resulted in a generous donation from the organisers.
Then of course we get to our busiest event of the year, our wonderful Christmas Float. It is hard to realise just how popular this is for the residents of Westbury and the surrounding villages until you spend a night walking with the team, but this year we have been so welcomed on the rounds that it really does reinforce just why we do it.
So many smiling faces, young and old, makes all of us realise just how much the community loves to see Santa and the lights. At times it can be quite a struggle to organise our volunteers to keep the float suitably supported for 21 days in a row, but all of the smiling faces really do make it worthwhile!
Over the year the majority of the funds we raise are distributed to local causes including schools and youth organisations, individuals and groups in need, and community projects. All requests for money are discussed by the welfare committee and then decided upon by the club membership.
One of the biggest events we support each year is to fund a coach and tickets for primary school children to go to Paultons Park for the day. This is a very exciting day at the theme park for many families who really appreciate the opportunity to see their children having so much fun. The visit is part of a larger event in our Lions District where local clubs provide 2,500 tickets for children, young carers and those with disabilities.
This year we also managed to arrange a day trip for children to Weymouth on the train, with an entire carriage being generously donated which we filled with many smiling children and parents!
Annually we sponsor several events at local schools including the Young Musician Competition at Matravers and the All Schools Concert where the primary school children get the chance to all join together at Matravers School. The standard of entertainment from the children at both of these events gets better every year and is truly outstanding.
Perhaps the final words should be reserved for our hardworking Leos. These young volunteers, supported by the hard working teaching staff at Matravers School and the Lions Club, have been a constant presence this year in so many activities in Westbury.
Their striking purple hoodies have grown to be associated with good character, hard work and community spirit. These are qualities that as Lions we all strive to maintain, and to see them being exhibited by teens who nowadays carry so many expectations on their shoulders should reassure us all that the future of Westbury Lions will be safe in their hands, and we look forward to promoting them all into the club in the years to follow.
If you would like more information, are interested in joining or would like to apply for funding please visit www.westburylions. org.uk.
Wishing you all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2017 from all the members of Westbury Lions Club.
By Nigel Coward
